The evening Inbox debates the real reason as to why companies make new consoles, as one reader is upset at how long it takes to install Red Dead Redemption II.
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Williams vs. Zimmer
Its an interesting point Dan H raises about music in video games. Ive never been a massive fan of licensed music in games, unless its for atmosphere as opposed to the way racing games tend to use it.
For example, and Im not even sure if these older pieces of music count as licensed as they might not cost anything to use, the way Beyond the Sea occasionally wafts into Bioshock, or the way Fallout would have stations with older music that fit the game. I recently played What Remains Of Edith Finch and the Halloween theme was a great surprise!
One thing I would disagree slightly with is the suggestion that older games had better/more memorable themes. Dont get me wrong, I love older games and dissolve into a puddle of murky brown nostalgia whenever I hear the Zelda theme or Dire Dire Docks. But I think new music is just as good. I recently listened to a YouTube compilation of Mario music and the biggest emotional gut-punch was this from Mario Odyssey. Theres an elegant simplicity to older themes which is great, and the fact that they are short and repetitive means they get stuck in your head easier, but there are some modern soundtracks that I absolutely love.
deckscrubber02
GC: We agree that the quality of modern music is not the issue. It seems to us its a general trend of the last decade thats largely influenced by movie music. The clear melodies of John Williams et al. are now less fashionable than the more subdued tonal work of Hans Zimmer, and the majority of video games have followed that trend.
Hardware demand
Everything every company ever does is purely for money is true in the ultimate sense, but they can also make decisions based upon the necessity of changes to allow for progression of the medium.
With games, often new consoles have come about but they have gone as far as they can with current hardware and visually, performance wise and in terms of game world size, etc. they are suffering, and developers are unable to get anything more out of them.
Theres also an element in which the market is just saturated and sales are slowing down, which is already happening with current consoles, but I do feel, the next gen really wont offer too much more other than superficial improvements to visuals. Game worlds are already huge, and how much bigger do developers really want to make them? We already have games that can offer 200 hours or so (costs would go through the roof, and they are already ridiculous in many cases).
it just feels like the only reason they really want to push new hardware is to sell new consoles and create new hype and reignite the market through this.
Kiran
GC: Companies make new consoles because the current ones arent selling as well as they used to – any other consideration is minor. The last gen couldve ended years before it did, if hardware performance was the primary concern, but it didnt.
Sonys number one
For those worried that VR has failed to hit the mainstream, and that Sony may not stay committed to the tech, I saw this tweet that shows that PlayStation VR is still the best-selling headset in the world, despite the fact that it only runs on a PlayStation 4 and not a PC.
I dont see Sony ever wanting to give up that kind of a lead and in fact if I was them Id want to expand out into doing PC headsets as well (I think they do a few, but that might have been a while ago now).
I agree with everyone that VR is a great and exciting thing and I want to thank GC for their continuing coverage of it, even as other websites almost seem to ignore it.
Jace
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Neo-Classic
The team over at Gamers Nexus has done a PlayStation Classic disassembly and have gone into detail on what is exactly inside the system in terms of its hardware, and has also shown the systems design part by part.
Considering that this is a classic system and the original PlayStation did not have the better hardware at the time it is interesting to see what Sony replaced and what Sony have done to the Classic to separate it from the original PlayStation console.
Its quite a detailed disassembly and shows what you will be buying and Im sure more disassembly of the PlayStation Classic by people looking into its set-up and features will help the community find a way to allow this system to play other PlayStation 1 games. Heres the video of the disassembly for those who are interested.
gaz be rotten (gamertag)
Fatigue of the Souls
I do not regard Dark Souls ll as a problem. Personally, I loved the game and think it got more than its unfair share of negative reviews. I think the reason for this was because it dared to be different when people were expecting more of the same and I preferred it to Dark Souls lll, which I thought got silly hard sometimes and seemed to be a mish-mash of the first Dark Souls and Bloodborne.
Of course it could be that by the time Dark Souls lll arrived I was suffering from Souls fatigue, having played through Dark Souls l and ll, and Bloodborne, a number of times. But I enjoyed Dark Souls ll more than I enjoyed Dark Souls lll, thats for sure.
Gill C.
Too much of a good thing
In response to the reader regarding the length of Hollow Knight, I have to agree: it does go on too long. However, I think the main reason for this is that the developer (Team Cherry) initially fundraised development and included stretch goals that would add additional areas, e.g. The Abyss. They then, of course, added the multiple DLCs to further extend the life of the game.
But I think Team Cherry do now need to step away from Hollow Knight and start another project. If it helps the previous reader, I had to switch my initial mentality to continue enjoying the game. Now Im okay with slowly tackling each Dream Boss, but progress has become extremely slow.
Overall, its incredible value for money. I urge anyone who hasnt played it yet to give it a go. It can be unforgiving, but the satisfaction when you do make progress is up there with Dark Souls for me.
Matt
Just guessing
Just from playing the last two Just Cause games I feel that I am able to predict the next one. Big dumb stunt show explosions with some poor storytelling getting you to the next set of explosions.
Lovely big island to do whatever you want in and glitches that might crash the game every so often. Oh, and some new way to traverse the island chain and a tornado gun.
TL;DR
6 thumbs up
Bobwallett
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Installing now
Got round to buying Red Dead Redemption II the other day.
Popped the disc in to install on my Xbox before taking the kids up for a bath.
Got back down a while later thinking Im sure itll let me get going while disc two installs… wont it?
It wont. Insert disc two.
Long before thats finished doing its thing, my other half comes through and – for some odd reason – decides that she doesnt want to spend her evening watching the % completion thing tick up slowly towards 100%. (Some people, eh?)
By the time weve finished watching re-runs of Gavin & Stacey, Im exhausted and its time for bed. I left the Xbox installing…
Good news though: I happened to wake up super early in the morning (5am – not that Im a middle-aged kid at Xmas, you understand) ready to play… only to be met with a message saying that it needs an (unskippable) 8GB update before I can get going.
Aaarggh!
At this point Im not even pining for the days of plugging in a cartridge and getting going immediately. Id settle for a five-minute wait for the Spectrum tape to load.
At some point in the next 24 hours Im sure Ill get a chance to, you know, actually have a go. But I cant help be disappointed that the epic quest on the screen had to begin with another epic quest of a very different kind…
TK421
Inbox also-rans
Personally Id prefer that Resident Evil 8 go back to the third person style. I always felt 7 was to wash out the bad taste of 5 and 6 but thats been done now and Im happy to go back to what feels like the traditional style to me.
JKN
I dont understand how anyone can have anything against superhero games considering there virtually are none! If you dont count Batman and Spider-Man in particular theyre practically instinct.
Golfton
This weeks Hot Topic
The subject for this weekends Inbox was suggested by reader Preston, who asks what older game would you still like to see get a remake or remaster?
With games even as obscure as Toki now getting full-blown remakes, and following the huge success of Crash Bandicoot and Spyro The Dragon, we want to know what games you think still need to make a comeback and whether you think they could really be a hit again.
It can be any game from any era, even if theyve still got current sequels, but we want to know exactly what you would – and wouldnt – change about the game. How much would the graphics have to change and how outdated will the gameplay seem to modern gamers? And most importantly, do you honestly think itll ever happen?
E-mail your comments to: [email protected]
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The small print
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